


The Infelicitous Adventures of Kylo Ren

by fedaykin



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Bad Decisions, Ben is Kylo is Matt, Evil Corporations, Frottage, M/M, Modern AU, Superhero Violence, Tons of Superhero Tropes in a tiny word count, fake identity, straight up murder, superhero au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-23
Packaged: 2019-07-13 03:57:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16009790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fedaykin/pseuds/fedaykin
Summary: BEN SOLO is your typical college-age boy, except he's on the run from an evil corporation! Their unethical experiments gave him the powers of TELEKINESIS and TELEPATHY, but Ben escapes before they can continue their scientific torture! Now, he tries to blend in with the common citizens of the city as MATT during the day, but the urge to help the weak and innocent is too strong. At night, Ben becomes KYLO REN, a dark superhero, dedicated to kicking ass and taking names! The company may be looking for Ben Solo, but another power, a thing named STARKILLER, searches in the night only for Kylo Ren...





	1. Issue 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first Big Bang! 
> 
> Much love to my partner, tinynarwhals. You dealt with my procrastinating brain and produced the coolest looking art ever, I am forever grateful to have been paired with you <3

  
  


* * *

It’s the sense of relief and weightlessness and the sun rising in the morning and everything is perfect again. The woman smiles and waves as she runs to the bus.

Ben walks to the alley and stares at the two men on the ground. He had stopped them. I hadn’t been pretty; they had been lifted ten feet in the air to be thrown at a brick wall and now they had some broken limbs, but he had stopped them with no bystander injuries.

One of the first times Ben tried to help someone, he hadn’t factored in how the bad guy was holding really tightly to his victim. They’d both gone sailing through the air.

Ben mumbled a “Sorry for throwing you in the dumpster, too. And ruining your coat. How much did it cost?” before he gave up and decided that this was the perfect time to try to wipe memories.

So, it was much better now.

Ben crouches next to one of the men and places his hand on their head. Going into minds was not easy or fun, it left a weird taste in his mouth. But it was much better now, it takes only a moment to find the memories he’s looking for - malice, surprise, pain.

Ben is still unsuccessful in planting fake memories, so he neatly snips the information out and leaves a mental post-it note: Go to the hospital for your broken arm.

He never knew if these actually worked, it’s not like he could follow these guys home and watch them. But still, Ben adds that the man should stop being so evil. And… maybe… go to church more?

That seems fairly innocent.

Ben sighs. He really just needs to call the police instead of scrambling brains. He pulls out his phone from his hoodie pocket and dials the non-emergency line.

Dread fills his heart before he hits send. It’s a horrible, raw,  _WANT._  All anticipation and malice. It’s getting clearer in his mind and that means it’s getting closer.

…

…

_Kylo Ren!_

Ben bolts in the opposite direction before his brain finishes the connection. It’s the thing that has been hunting it, that gets closer and closer to finding him each night. They are so sure and driven and this thing certainly knows that Ben’s powers are real. The desire is so ominous yet so seductive.

Ben is on the run. He can never be found.

It’s when Ben gets home and drops into his ratty armchair that he realizes his mistake. He didn’t wipe the memories of the other guy. Or the woman he saved.

“Fuuuck…” Ben moans. He’s going to have to move ahead with his new costume idea sooner than he’d like. He definitely needs a mask now and the money to do it.

Everything is awful. He would give anything for a more mundane life.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find the author on tumblr: [Huxplicit](http://www.huxplicit.tumblr.com/)  
> Find the artist on twitter: [tinynarwhals](http://www.twitter.com/tinynarwhals)


	2. Issue 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PREVIOUSLY: Ben Solo has saved the day but may have left behind witnesses that know his face! Something is searching for him and Ben just wishes to live a normal life again!

* * *

 

“Hello! Welcome to Resistance Bakery! What can I get for you?” 

Ben’s cheeks hurt from smiling. Children are running and screaming through the few tables, sprinkles flying from the donuts in their hands to cover the floor. He needs to make more dozen boxes and start some coffee. The customer in front of him wipes greasy fingerprints on the glass counter, violently tapping at each pastry he wants. Ben tries not to scratch his at his scalp. The blond wig is cheap and sweat drips down his neck. 

A job is a job, Ben knows to appreciate that now. It hadn’t always been this way. 

Once, Ben had a comfortable life. He had a family he cared about and an easy childhood, although not as stable as most children he was around. He was a good student, accepted into a good college, even with an undecided major. 

It was that first year of school that he found out more about his family’s dark history. His grandfather had been a supervillain. A bombshell for anyone to find out, but suddenly a lot of Ben’s past made sense. The moving, the secrets, the looks, the anger management courses at age 8. 

Ben hadn’t known how to feel back then. Was he insulted that his family has assumed he’d be bad? Did he want to prove them right or wrong? 

Ben stopped answering their phone calls. Texts were left on Read(Heavy Check Mark ) and then slowly on Unread. He needed to think. And when the money stopped flowing, he had plenty of time to sit and think. 

It was in his Psych 101 class that he had a revelation; the psychology of heroes and villains was a popular chapter, after all. Did Ben have potential? Did he have to be good? Did he have to be bad? Did he even have any skills or powers or resources to find out? No. But he had to find out. 

Luckily, Ben was fantastic at looking pathetic. Dwindling money meant less food, less laundry, and more couch-surfing. 

It was after the fifth paid psychology study of the day that an upperclassman approached him. They’d recognized him from the plasma donation center, where Ben was a regular. 

“I know some guys looking for participants. It’s drug stuff, like, not bad stuff, but medicine. They pay big bucks, so go check them out.” 

First Order Pharmaceuticals, the card said.

Well, they were a good company, Ben had thought. The commercials were on TV, they were in the news for breakthroughs and donations and lowering the costs of medication. The good guys, the heroes. Perhaps Ben would be able to help someone, be the key to some groundbreaking research, and sure he’d get a paycheck, but he’d feel great about it. He could make his own life, no more following his family’s history. 

It was groundbreaking research. Perfect. 

And so it was shocking how it went from friendly smiles and laughing scientists to… 

… to fire and bullets and screaming. 

They had changed him. It was amazing. It was their first successful treatment out of thousands of failures. 

Then they were going to use him. Imprison him. Study him. Dissect him. Who knew that was in the fine print?  

“Excuse me?” The voice is shrill and horrible. Ben blinks and it’s a textbook example of Let-Me-Speak-To-Your-Manager Woman. “You didn’t give us any Long Johns!” 

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t charge you for them, did you want to buy some now?” This woman had been in a few customers ago, her children trying to order their own donuts with lots of yelling and confusion. 

“We ordered Long Johns and we want Long Johns, how hard is this?” 

No, they definitely hadn’t ordered any. “Well, they’re 90¢ each and—” 

“We want two!” 

Ben pauses. “Um.” The entitlement oozing out of the woman’s head is making him nauseous. 

The woman shakes her bag at his face. “I can’t believe this service. I am never coming here again!” 

There’s a sharp  _ pop! _ as a paper bag opens followed by the crinkle of tissue paper. Leslie appears over Ben’s shoulder. “Here you go, ma’am. Have a nice day.” The ‘eat shit and die’ is left unsaid, but it still oozes after the woman storming to the door. And Leslie is all teeth until the woman climbs into her minivan. 

“I haven’t had my muffin yet, Matt! I’m going on break,” Leslie snorts before pressing through the Employee’s Only door. She’s a great boss. A little gruff at first, but she just tells it how it is. Ben sighs, getting mentally ready for the next customer. 

“Are you all right?” 

It’s honey dripping in his giant ears. It’s Hux. Ben chokes on his saliva. 

Hux just smiles softly as Ben’s ears turn bright red under the ridiculous blond wig. He suppresses another urge to scratch them. “Good Morning, Mr. Hux,” Ben says. 

A few mornings a week, Hux comes in to pick up five dozen donuts for his work. It’s these large orders from various companies that really help out the business, it’s steady money. Ben pulls out the invoice from the binder on the back table. Hux signs it with a beautiful flowing script as Ben places the large stack of boxes on the counter. 

“Would you like some help getting these to your car?” He’s really not supposed to do that; if Ben drops them, then the bakery would be liable. But then again, Hux has never taken him up on the offer, he just can’t resist asking. 

“Sure, I’d love that.” 

Ben.exe has stopped working. 

This wasn’t supposed to happen. 

“Coming, Matthew?” It wasn’t even his real name and shivers still ran down Ben’s spine. His mind stretched out unconsciously. Hux’s thoughts were never very loud, more like little whispers. A quiet exhaustion, frustration older than time, but there was always this tiny zap when they talked. A ripple that grew more and more to wash over him. Ben smiles and grabs three boxes, prepared to do the heavy lifting. 

Hux’s car is not what Ben expected; an older model, a little worse for wear, mail and receipts on the floor. It makes Hux feel a bit more real, especially when Hux apologizes for the mess with a blush. 

“Anything else I—”

“So, how do you—” 

They both say at the same time. Hux chuckles and Ben feels the tension in Hux’s head rise. 

“Um. Well. Thank you for your help, Matthew.” 

“It’s no problem, Mr. Hux.” 

Hux is looking down at the ground, his hands in his pockets. “Call me Armitage.” 

“See you later, Armitage.” 

They smile at each other and Hux gets in his car. Ben watches him leave. 

Ben’s a fugitive on the run from an evil corporation while also playing vigilante at night with the powers of telekinesis and telepathy. 

Is dating a bad idea? 

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find the author on tumblr: [Huxplicit](http://www.huxplicit.tumblr.com/)  
> Find the artist on twitter: [tinynarwhals](http://www.twitter.com/tinynarwhals)


	3. Issue 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PREVIOUSLY: Ben has a horrible day job with an even more horrible blond wig, but a cute guy comes in pretty regularly! Is dating a bad idea?

* * *

 

A loud snore makes Ben jerk up. His notepad is wet and the words he had been writing had trailed off into a long squiggle. Oh. He was the one who snored.

Ben knew it was a bad idea, but listening to police scanners the night before he had to open the bakery just made sense. Just stay up all night until he needs to get to the store at four in the morning.

He raises a sluggish arm to take a sip of his beer, grimacing at the taste. Warm and flat, made worse by it being the cheapest beer the corner store carried. Ben checks his phone. It’s nearly two in the morning, he’d been sleeping for a while.

There hadn’t been much on the radio. Typical stops that Ben would only get in the way if he showed up. Noise violation, parking violation, common enough that he had started to remember their codes. And because it was a pain in the ass to look up every code number for whatever was going on. He would be well on his way to apply for the police academy at this rate. 

Except that would never happen. Ben Solo didn’t exist anymore. Kylo Ren was a cover. And Matt was a crappy wig and glasses. He was no one.

Ben doesn’t feel guilty about reaching for the zebra cakes. Life sucks, he deserves this.

He deserves this tiny room with a bed too small, full of busted springs. He deserves the broken and rotted desk he found by the dumpster. And the microwave that only heated one side of his food.

Yep. He deserves another zebra cake.

He is licking white icing from his thumb when the police scanner catches his attention.

“Yeah, it’s pretty bad, we’re going to need the whole forensics team,” a tired voice says.

“Really? You want me to wake up Simmons, too?”

“Yep, everybody. I already called the chief.”

Ben felt the sleep fall from his body. Curiosity killed the cat, but the cat also wasn’t telekinetic or telepathic.

“—tween the body next to the dumpster and the one sitting at Ben’s Diner… it’s looking like Starkiller.”

…

Starkiller.

Ben knew that diner and he grabbed his hoodie as he ran out the door.

 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find the author on tumblr: [Huxplicit](http://www.huxplicit.tumblr.com/)  
> Find the artist on twitter: [tinynarwhals](http://www.twitter.com/tinynarwhals)


	4. Issue 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> PREVIOUSLY: Ben is feeling down on life, but now someone has lost their life, so everything is exciting again!

* * *

 

Bed hides next to an overflowing dumpster. It smells like death, which seems appropriate. 

There are two dead bodies, after all. 

This one is sitting across the street, on the sidewalk in front of the diner. He can’t see much from the alley, but this is a good time to practice his abilities. 

Ben pushes his hood down and extends his hand. It’s time to focus. 

At his job, as Matt, it was easy to get a read on people’s moods. Even the most put-together of people still glowed around the edges. But he had only been able to get actual thoughts from a distance when there was only one person in the store. One person reading a newspaper and eating a pastry was pretty simple. Generally, their thoughts were very orderly, they just thought the words they read mostly. The deeper thoughts were like an overlaying commentary. 

Trying to find out specific information from a crowd of people, all emotions high as they investigated murder? 

Ben smiles. Or grimaces. He knows he’s an idiot. 

But he has to know. 

He imagines his mind stretching out, like a red mist, tendrils flicking out to touch people, their own clouds. 

_Exhaustion. Frustration. Nausea._ He needs to find someone more… analytical. 

There’s a guy standing next to the body, looking down and thinking. That’s a good start. 

Ben focuses harder. 

_ Nothing is on fire… fire is on things.  _

What? 

Ben has to break the connection completely, the sheer strength of that thought consuming him. He blinks and stares at the man. He must really be tired. 

Blown mind aside, Ben finds a woman filling out paperwork and talking to various other officers. 

Perfect. 

Ben stretches out again and finds her wavelength. 

It’s not quite perfect. But it’s something. 

_ Starkiller. No toxicology. One needle. Poison. Immediate death. No struggle. Starkiller. Didn’t need this one.  _

Ben frowns. So, one dead man, poisoned by a needle, and Starkiller didn’t even need to do it? That didn’t sound right. 

Well. Murdering people, in general, isn’t right, but from what the papers said, Starkiller only seemed to kill criminals. At least, every death that was linked to him, ended up having a criminal lifestyle. 

Maybe Starkiller is a good guy? His heart is in the right place? He just needs to cut back on all the murder. 

But if that creepy feeling that came sometimes… if that really was Starkiller getting closer… 

He didn’t want Ben so they could be best friends and fight crime. 

Ben needs to get to the other body. He leans further around the dumpster and sees the lights at the other corner of the block. He could try to take it wide, go several blocks around so no one sees him… 

Ben gulps and walks out into the street. 

His eyes are wide and he’s sweating, but he keeps repeating in his head, **NOTHING TO SEE HERE. MOVE ALONG**. 

The force of his thoughts as he walks through the police cause several to jerk 180 °, voicing su rprise and confusion as everyone turns their back to Ben. 

**NOTHING TO SEE HERE. NOTHING. OH MY GOD. NOTHING OVER HERE AT ALL.**

It’s a disaster. 

It works. 

Somehow. 

There are considerably fewer people for a more gruesome crime scene. This body has broken limbs and blood is in a neat puddle on the concrete, oozing from star-shaped holes. A giant star painted in blood is on the wall.

Ben kneels behind a police cruiser and this time he can hear the officers talking. 

“Probably a scalpel, the cutouts are very neat, done to hurt but not kill.” 

“So he tortured the guy?” 

“Kinda looks like it.” 

“Fuck.” 

The woman huffs a laugh. “Yeah, that sounds about right. I don’t know what this guy did, but he definitely pissed Starkiller off. Or he had something that Starkiller wanted.” 

Ben frowns. He felt like he was missing something. 

The light from the laptop in the cruiser catches his eye and Ben sneaks over, intrigued. 

It seems to be the file on the dead guy. Horrible mugshot but Ben feels like he knows this guy. It wouldn’t be too surprising, he did see a lot of criminals lately. 

Ben reads more. Burglary, grand theft auto, arson, assault with a deadly weapon… He looks at the face again. 

Wait. 

Ben does know him. 

He was one of the guys that attacked that lady the other day. 

And he’d been in the middle of wiping their memories when… Starkiller… 

He hadn’t wiped this guy’s memory. This is the guy who might have gotten a look at his face. 

Starkiller had murdered the guys he’d stopped. 

Ben stares out the windshield at the body, sick. He looks at the big blood star on the wall, surrounding the advertisement for Solo cups. 

Solo cups. 

Ben’s diner. 

Ben laughs to not scream. 

Starkiller knows him. 

Ben runs home. 

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Find the author on tumblr: [Huxplicit](http://www.huxplicit.tumblr.com/)  
> Find the artist on twitter: [tinynarwhals](http://www.twitter.com/tinynarwhals)


End file.
